In recent years, the J-SOX (Japanese Sarbanes-Oxley) act is established as internal control rules for suppressing risk and constructing a managed system with respect to problems (law violation, inaccuracy of financial affairs, and the like) such as successive scandalous affairs of companies.
Therefore, the most important thing is, for example, that each company complies with the J-SOX act, and thus it is expected that data to be saved for a long term further continues to increase in the future. For this reason, it is easily expected that an archive storage system “CAS (Content Aware Storage)” of each company that is used for data saving requires the expansion of external storage devices. In this regard, a technology for changing the configuration of peripheral devices in a computer system is conventionally proposed in various ways.
FIG. 11 is a conventional example illustrating a relationship between external storage devices expanded in CAS and operation modes before and after expansion. FIG. 12 is a diagram explaining operation modes performed in CAS. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a manner of expanding external storage devices in CAS.
An operation mode illustrated in FIG. 12 indicates a data saving status in CAS. For example, an operation mode “single” means a mode in which data is singly saved in a disk that is previously mounted on a system in a state where an external storage device is not connected to the system. Moreover, for example, an operation mode “disk to tape” means a mode in which data is doubly saved in a disk that is previously mounted on a system and an external storage device that is connected to the system. An operation mode “hierarchization” means a mode in which data is doubly saved in a disk that is previously mounted on a storage system or a tape library that is expanded in the storage system.
As illustrated in FIG. 11, the expanded external storage device includes a tape library and a tape drive. For example, as illustrated in (1) and (2) of FIG. 13, when the number of expanded tape libraries is one and the operation mode before expansion is “single”, the operation mode after expansion is modified to “disk to tape” or “hierarchization” as illustrated in FIG. 11.
Moreover, as illustrated in (3) of FIG. 13, when the number of expanded tape drives is one and the operation mode before expansion is “disk to tape”, the operation mode after expansion is “disk to tape” without modification as illustrated in FIG. 11.
Moreover, as illustrated in (4) and (5) of FIG. 13, when the number of expanded tape libraries is one and the operation mode before expansion is “disk to tape”, the operation mode after expansion is “disk to tape” without modification or is modified to “hierarchization” as illustrated in FIG. 11.
Moreover, as illustrated in (6) and (7) of FIG. 13, when the number of expanded tape libraries is two and the operation mode before expansion is “single”, the operation mode after expansion is modified to “disk to tape” or “hierarchization” as illustrated in FIG. 11.
Moreover, to make CAS recognize the expansion of a tape library or a tape drive, various types of environment settings should be modified in addition to the modification of the above operation modes. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 14, the environment settings indicated by No. 1 to No. 3 of FIG. 14 should be updated along with the expansion of external storage devices to CAS.
For example, as No. 1, each environment setting should be updated to make the OS of a CAS server recognize expansion. Moreover, as No. 2, the library environment setting of middleware that controls a tape library should be updated. Moreover, as No. 3, an environment setting file and an environment setting according to expansion in a CAS server should be updated. FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating the type of environment setting required for expansion in CAS.
As illustrated in FIG. 15, environment setting methods include three methods such as the updating of configuration information of a configuration file, the updating of setting performed by an interactive tool, and the command execution provided by OS, library control middleware, and CAS. FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an environment setting modifying method when expansion is performed in CAS.
FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating a series of working procedures when a tape library or a tape drive is expanded in a conventional CAS. As illustrated in FIG. 16, when a tape library or a tape drive is expanded in a conventional CAS, the working procedures are totally 13 of No. 1 to No. 13. The working procedure No. 1 is “total stop of CAS”.
Moreover, No. 2 is “hard expansion (hard-side setting modification & connection)”. No. 3 is “CAS restart”. No. 4 is “OS environment setting”. No. 5 is “only CAS server restart”. No. 6 is “tape library control middleware stop”. Moreover, No. 7 is “tape library control middleware server environment setting”. No. 8 is “CAS server environment setting 1”. No. 9 is “only CAS server restart”. No. 10 is “tape library control middleware client environment setting”. Moreover, No. 11 is “operation mode modification”. No. 12 is “only CAS server restart”. No. 13 is “CAS server environment setting 2”.
Moreover, “the number of fixed works” or “the number of variable works” of a header illustrated in FIG. 16 shows the number of items to be set or the number of commands to be executed and “-” shows that there is not a work. A fixed work shows an essential work that sets information determined at work or executes a command determined at work.
For example, the “total stop of CAS” of the working procedure No. 1 has only a fixed work. The number of works at the expansion of a tape library is “1” and the number of works at the expansion of a drive is “1”. Moreover, the “hard expansion (hard-side setting modification & connection)” of No. 2 has only a fixed work. The number of works at the expansion of a tape library is “1” and the number of works at the expansion of a drive is “1”. Moreover, the “CAS restart” of No. 3 has only a fixed work. The number of works at the expansion of a tape library is “1” and the number of works at the expansion of a drive is “1”.
Moreover, the “OS environment setting” of No. 4 has only a variable work. The number of works at the expansion of a tape library is “5 to 10” and the number of works at the expansion of a drive is “4 to 9”. Moreover, the “only CAS server restart” of No. 5 has only a fixed work. The number of works at the expansion of a tape library is “2” and the number of works at the expansion of a drive is “2”.
Moreover, the “tape library control middleware stop” of No. 6 has only a fixed work that is required at the expansion of a tape library. The number of works is “2”. The “tape library control middleware server environment setting” of No. 7 requires a fixed work and a variable work. The number of fixed works at the expansion of a tape library is “12” and the number of variable works is “9 to 13”. The number of fixed works at the expansion of a drive is “2” and the number of variable works is “5 to 8”.
Moreover, the “CAS server environment setting 1” of No. 8 has only a fixed work that is required for the expansion of a drive. The number of works is “1”. The “only CAS server restart” of No. 9 has only a fixed work. The number of works at the expansion of a tape library is “2” and the number of works at the expansion of a drive is “2”. The “tape library control middleware client environment setting” of No. 10 has a fixed work and a variable work that are required at the expansion of a tape library. The number of fixed works at the expansion of a tape library is “8” and the number of variable works is “1 to 2”.
The “operation mode modification” of No. 11 has only a variable work that is required at the expansion of a tape library. The number of works is “2”. The “only CAS server restart” of No. 12 has only a fixed work that is required at the expansion of a tape library. The number of works is “4”. The “CAS server environment setting 2” of No. 13 has only a fixed work that is required at the expansion of a tape library. The number of works is “2”.
Now, it will be additionally explained about the working procedures at the expansion illustrated in FIG. 16. In the OS environment setting indicated by the working procedure of No. 4, the setting of a path for a robot or a drive (setting of WWW Port Name (robot, drive 1 to drive X)) is performed in accordance with the expansion of a tape library. The environment setting of OS increases as much as libraries are expanded.
In the tape library control middleware server environment setting indicated by the working procedure of No. 7, the setting related to middleware for controlling a tape library is performed in accordance with the expansion of a tape library. For example, a client group (not dependent on the increase and decrease of a library or a drive), a client host name (not dependent on the increase and decrease of a library or a drive), a library name, the type of LTO (Linear Tape-Open: a standard of a storage device), a drive name, and a connection method (not dependent on the increase and decrease of a library or a drive) are set. In addition, the working procedure of No. 7 is a working procedure that is required for only the expansion of a drive.
In the CAS server environment setting 1 indicated by the working procedure of No. 8, the setting of a cleaning implementation timing of a tape library is performed in accordance with the expansion of a tape library. For example, a cleaning information file (in a library unit), a cleaning implementation date and a cleaning expiration date from a drive 1 to a drive X are set. In the tape library middleware client environment setting indicated by the working procedure of No. 10, for example, the setting of a client host name (not dependent on the increase and decrease of a library or a drive) is performed in accordance with the expansion of a tape library.
In the CAS server environment setting 2 indicated by the working procedure of No. 13, the setting of a cleaning information file (the same as CAS server environment setting 1) and the setting of an operation mode file (operation mode: single/disk to tape/hierarchy) is performed in accordance with the expansion of a tape library. In addition, the working procedure of No. 13 is a working procedure that is required at only the expansion of a library.
In the variable work described above, the number of works varies with a variable factor illustrated in FIG. 17. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 17, variable factors that have an influence on the number of variable works include six factors of No. 1 to No. 6. For example, variable factors are No. 1 “kind of device to be expanded”, No. 2 “kind of tape library”, No. 3 “number of tape libraries to be expanded”, No. 4 “number of tape drives to be expanded”, No. 5 “kind of tape drive”, and No. 6 “kind of operation mode”.
When explaining an example of a setting item corresponding to each variable factor, there is “tape library/tape drive” as a setting item corresponding to No. 1 “kind of device to be expanded”. There is “large-sized tape library/small-sized tape library” as a setting item corresponding to No. 2 “kind of tape library”. There is “1/2/4” as a setting item corresponding to No. 3 “number of tape libraries to be expanded”.
Moreover, there is “1/2” as a setting item corresponding to No. 4 “number of tape drives to be expanded”. There is “LTO3/LTO4” as a setting item corresponding to No. 5 “kind of tape drive”. Moreover, there is “single/disk to disk/disk to tape/hierarchization” as a setting item corresponding to No. 6 “kind of operation mode”. FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating variable factors that have an influence on the expansion work of a tape library or a tape drive in CAS.
A worker who performs an expansion work sequentially performs manually a plurality of expansion working procedures that consists of the number of fixed works and the number of variable works along with the expansion of an external storage device to CAS.
The above technology has been known as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2001-282661.
There is the following problem because a series of works performed at the expansion of a tape library or a tape drive in a conventional CAS have variable works at the expansion and thus the number of works becomes many in accordance with the presence of variable factors (see FIG. 17) that have an influence on an expansion work.
In other words, because the decision of an expansion work according to a device configuration or an operation mode before and after the expansion of a tape library/a tape drive of CAS and the decision of a setting item or a set value in environment setting are entrusted to the determination of an expansion worker, the expansion worker may misjudge the decisions.
Moreover, as illustrated in FIG. 16, because the number of works is extremely many in that the total number of works at the expansion of a tape library is 54 to 64 and the total number of works at the expansion of a tape drive is 19 to 27, a worker may incorrectly input a set value and also a load on the worker becomes large. Furthermore, because the number of works is extremely many, a work takes time.